OSU Sports Med Team Develops Medical Testing Device to Help Prevent Injuries and Enhance Core Stability

Core strength and stability are key to human movement, work and play.  Innovators at the Ohio State University have developed a new way of monitoring an individual’s core stability in order to ward off injuries while improving performance. 

Chris McKenzie, PT, AT, and Ajit Chaudhari, PhD, of OSU Sports Medicine have assembled a University-wide, multidisciplinary team to develop a device that measures an athlete’s core stabil¬ity and strength – the control of the musculature within the body’s trunk and hips – while the ath¬lete is in an active, upright position.  Current core strength tests are most often completed with the individual lying on the floor performing crunches or planks. 

“We like to call this device ‘Perfect Practice’ because it helps users maintain the best posture while they practice, ensuring the proper lumbo¬pelvic (core) stability training needed to enhance performance and prevent injury,” explains Chaud¬hari, assistant professor of Orthopaedics and co-director of the OSU Sports Medicine Movement Analysis & Performance Program.

The OSU Sports Medicine team is now studying the device’s ability to help predict injuries – and to prevent them – through better training prac¬tices.  Research under way involves athletes with the Kansas City Royals, Cleveland Indians, Tampa Bay Rays and Pittsburgh Pirates.

While Perfect Practice has been developed with a focus on baseball pitchers, McKenzie and Chaudhari agree that it has enormous poten¬tial beyond professional athletics and even clinical practice. From active amateurs on the golf course to workers hunched over a computer, from post-surgery rehab programs to exercise classes, this simple device could help all individuals learn to strengthen and control core muscles result¬ing in greater ability and injury prevention.

“The device is patent-pending and has been published. Through a recent $50,000 TechGenesis grant from TechColumbus, we are in the process of developing the final device prototype to be manufactured and potentially commercialized,” McKenzie adds.

For complete details, see the story from OSU:

http://medicalcenter.osu.edu/mediaroom/releases/Pages/Device-Helps-Improve-Athletic-Performance,-Reduce-Injuries.aspx